A sampling from the newly discovered Emory Police Beat blog, which I highly recommend adding to your feed reader.

…On Feb. 21, EPD officers responded to the Clairmont Campus field and located several white male subjects taking turns hitting ketchup bottles with wood. EPD officers observed that the subjects had glassy eyes, an odor of alcohol on their person and that their speech was slurred. Officers also discovered a large amount of debris near Clairmont Tower, including pizza boxes, a chair, balloons, a fire extinguisher and glass alcohol bottles.

The report continues here…

http://policebeat.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/police-record-friday-february-26/

(My apologies for the lack of formatting. Posting from my Blackberry.)

From the CSD website…

The City Schools of Decatur’s College Heights Pre-K Lottery will be held at the Central Office at Westchester (758 Scott Boulevard, Decatur 30030) on Monday, March 1, 2010 at 12:00 pm.  Families may choose to be present for the lottery drawing or they may contact Felicia Gibson (404-370-4480) after 2:00 pm on Monday for lottery results.

Thanks to Jenny for the heads up!

After DeKalb’s budget for the coming year passed with no furlough days, no pay on holidays (police still have to work on holidays), and no merit pay increases, some DeKalb police officers on the DeKalb Officers blog threatened to stop giving out traffic tickets in protest.

That led to this CBS Atlanta report…

And that led the DeKalb Officers blog to respond with this statement, which reads in part…

We all took an oath to protect and serve the citizens of DeKalb County, and we intend to do just that. If you have a true emergency or are in need of protection from being a victim, especially a victim of violence, we are coming.

…But on the other hand, when it comes to traffic enforcement, we have discretion and lots of it. During these times when the commissioners are forcing us to work on holidays for no pay, we may just look the other way when you ease through that traffic sign or fail to use a turn signal. We envision traffic citations decreasing and warning tickets increasing. But please, not for one second believe we will allow anyone to place someone ease’s life in danger.

The commission has suggested traffic fines be increased by 3%. We don’t agree. That is just another back door tax on the motorist within DeKalb County. We are not tax collectors. We are law enforcement officers.

Use this post to make comments and ask questions about local issues not brought up here in the past week.

Comments close Monday.

(Anyone out there interested in sponsoring FFAF – the most consistently popular post of the week?  If so, shoot me a note and we’ll work something out.)

From the New York Times Diner’s Journal…

My chef friend Scott Peacock called today to confirm that he has resigned from the Watershed restaurant in Atlanta to pursue new projects.

Scott had been with Watershed for 11 years, during which the restaurant become known for its interpretations of Southern food, including fried chicken, which regularly sells out on Tuesday nights, the only night it is available. Last week, the James Beard Foundation named him a semi-finalist in the Outstanding Chef category, a nationwide award.

Emily Saliers, a co-owner of Watershed, gave me a follow-up call this afternoon. She is one half of the Indigo Girls, and is in Miami getting ready for one of their concerts tonight. She called the separation “amicable.” The crew at the Watershed, which is accustomed to working without Mr. Peacock when he travels, will continue to put out the same food while Ms. Saliers and her co-owner, Ross Jones, search for a new executive chef.

According to the post, Peacock’s future plans include working on a documentary and writing books.

Thanks to Amanda for forwarding.

Hats off to Dave for posting this first! I was mid-search when I realized he had beat me to the punch.

From Bludgeon & Skewer…

Hey Kids,

It’s time to meet David Montané! The Libertarian Candidate for State Senate District 42 will be at The Marley House in Decatur [this] Thursday night, 25 FEB 10, starting at 7PM. We urge all liberty minded individuals in Decatur to attend and meet the man himself.

More HERE.

From the Agnes Scott Communication Office…

Agnes Scott College’s lacrosse team, the first varsity women’s lacrosse team in Georgia, will take the field for its first regular season game ever on March 2 against LaGrange College.

Agnes Scott was the first Georgia college to establish a varsity women’s lacrosse team, though other Georgia teams (including LaGrange) have followed or are preparing for their first seasons. While there are several club lacrosse teams at other Georgia colleges and universities, Agnes Scott’s team was the first school-sponsored (varsity) women’s lacrosse team.

The game will be held at Agnes Scott’s Gellerstedt Track and Field from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m. The NCAA Division III team is competing in the USA South Athletic Conference, which includes seven other colleges from Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.

Read the full article HERE.

UPDATE: WABE’s Charles Edwards has posted a pic from the scene where police are STILL inside Lewis’ home.  The raid started at 7am, according to Edwards.

Whoa.  From the AJC…

The DeKalb school board chairman says Superintendent Crawford Lewis is cooperating with investigators as they search his home and three school offices.

The search is part of an ongoing criminal investigation into multimillion-dollar school construction projects.

The DeKalb district attorney’s office served a search warrant at Lewis’ home in the Southland subdivision in Stone Mountain around 7:30 this morning. Around the same time, investigators showed up at the DeKalb school headquarters on North Decatur Road with a second search warrant.

Investigators are now searching the two school board buildings on North Decatur Road and the Sam Moss Service Center on Montreal Road in Tucker, said Orzy Theus, a spokesman for the district attorney.

Other than the tipped-off AJC, it sounds like this has taken everyone by surprise.  Burrell Ellis showed up at the scene and asked the AJC what was up.  The DeKalb Board of Ed is holding an emergency meeting tomorrow morning at 9am.

Geez a-loo.

Someone asked about the date of this spring’s Decatur Electronics Recycling Day in a comment yesterday.  Commissioner Patti Garrett’s website/blog provides the answer…

Mark your calendar for the City of Decatur’s next Electronics Recycling Day, slated for March 27th from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Decatur High School.

More details will follow as we get closer to this event.

As noted in Decatur City Commissioner Patti Garrett’s recent email to the community, there’s a March 1st MARTA public forum at the lovely Maloof Auditorium in downtown Decatur, from 6p-8p, to discuss the proposed bus route changes and flat-out discontinuations planned for the Atlanta transit system.  As noted rather succinctly by Garrett…

The routes around the East Lake, Avondale, and Decatur stations that face severe changes include the following:

Avondale: #2, #8, #36, #75, #114, #119, #120, #122, #125

Decatur: # 15, #18, #19,#123

East Lake: #22, #24

Garrett also suggests a couple other ways to give your feedback, which include…

1) Call the hotline, which receives and records messages from the public, at 404-848-5026; and 2) there is a “click and comment” section on the MARTA website at www.itsmarta.com.